It has been said that Captain Philip’s public acknowledgment of God on
the decks of the battle-ship “Texas,” after the fight before Santiago, was
the natural expression of a deeply religious nature. But his classmates at
the Naval Academy and the men who have sailed with him say that he is not
more religious than other men in the navy,--not so religious as many, who
always have their Bible on the table in their cabins and read it regularly
when at sea or in port.
They believe that he spoke on the impulse of the moment, his heart
devoutly thankful that the victory had been achieved at so slight a loss,
and willing that all men should witness his profession of faith.
[Illustration: HER LAST DUTY]
As a boy at the Academy, while he never surreptitiously drank, as others
did, he made no pretence of being religious. He smoked whenever he got
a chance, in his quarters or in the darknesses back of old Fort Severn,
between the watchmen’s rounds. He never, as other cadets did, gave his
word not to smoke, and so he felt a perfect freedom to do it if he could
keep from being caught. Like Sigsbee, he was a practical joker, and if
you should go to any of the members of his class and ask them who was the
most popular man in it, they would say, “Jack Philip.”